Summary of the day so far …
Far right politician Giorgia Meloni has claimed victory in Italy’s elections, and near complete results gave her rightwing coalition a clear majority.
Brothers of Italy, Meloni’s party that has neofascist origins, is also set to scoop by far the biggest share of the votes within the coalition, which includes the far-right League, and Forza Italia, headed by Silvio Berlusconi.
Matteo Salvini, the head of the League, has said he would work with Meloni to form a long-lasting, stable government. The anti-immigration politician is seen as a potential weak spot for Meloni’s chances of forming a government in the weeks ahead.
Enrico Letta, the leader of Italy‘s centre-left Democratic party (PD), plans to step down after defeat in the national election. He described the vote as victory for a rightwing alliance led by Giorgia Meloni as a “sad day for Italy and Europe”.
Far right figures across Europe and in the United States have celebrated the news, warning that it heralds a political shift across the continent.
US Secretary of State of State Antony Blinken said Washington was eager to work with Rome’s next government but mentioned “human rights” in a statement that will be seen as as a caution to the Italian far right.
The French prime minister, Elisabeth Borne – while refusing to comment directly on the vote – has said her country will be monitoring human rights, and particularly access to abortion, in Italy.
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Updated
A lawyer has pledged to fight in court a decades-old Italian election law that in widespread implementation on Sunday led to thousands of voters, including trans people, being forced into gender-segregated queues.
Hundreds of LGTBQ+ activists denounced discrimination at polling stations in Sunday’s general election. Many told of their experiences on social media, citing how the binary queues failed to consider the “complexity of thousands of voters in Italy whose identity cards do not reflect their gender” and forced them to publicly identify themselves as trans people.
“Gender-segregated queues are a violation of privacy of all those who are making a gender transition,” said Cathy La Torre, an LGTBQ+ activist and lawyer. “Enough is enough. I am not a trans person and I cannot sue the state for violating my privacy, but I am a lawyer and I can launch a battle to change this law.”
Voting procedures in Italy are regulated by a law dating front 1967 that allows for the infrequently implemented separation into men-only and women-only queues at polling stations and states that electoral lists must also be divided by gender.
The law, which has never been repealed, also provides for a married woman to be identified at a polling station with her husband’s surname.
